One of the issues that drivers face when driving in various weather conditions is front windshield visibility. Poor front windshield visibility can be caused by dirt, by windshield glass freezing or by condensation on the windshield glass, or a “foggy windshield”. Drivers will usually handle poor visibility issues by either using wipers to clean the glass from the outside (in the case of dirt or glass freezing) or by using the temperature controls of the vehicle to heat the windshield above the dew point to clean condensation from the windshield. Clearing a “foggy windshield” is repeated as the glass becomes “foggy” again during driving, reducing visibility and distracting the driver from operating the vehicle. Reduced visibility and distracted driving pose a safety risk. Some conventional designs to improve visibility use dedicated humidity sensors to detect condensation. Such designs are expensive and have not achieved wide adoption.
It would be desirable to implement an automatic maintenance of front/rear windshield visibility that uses information from a video capture device that is cost effective.